Doctor Who #39: The Ice Warriors

Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors, 1967 (the third story of seven from season five). Scientists trying to stop a new ice age discover buried Martians.

Directed by Derek Martinus. Written by Brian Hayles. Starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, & Deborah Watling.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: F
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: There are some nice enough sets and costumes, but the sound is unbelievably horrendous. F
Acting: F
Music: D
Enjoyment: Boring. It's a terrible script, realized so incompetently that a lot of it is literally painful to watch. F

GPA: 0.8/4

Doctor Who #80: Terror of the Zygons

Doctor Who: Terror of the Zygons, 1975 (the first story of six from season thirteen). The Loch Ness monster is a cyborg controlled by aliens.

Directed by Douglas Camfield. Written by Robert Banks Stewart. Starring Tom Baker, Nicholas Courtney, Ian Marter, & Elisabeth Sladen.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: D
Special effects/design: The monster is terrible, but the alien spaceship is pretty great. C
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: An inexplicable throw-back to the worst of the Pertwee era. I'd think it was meant as a parody, but it's not funny (with the exception of a couple good Fourth Doctor Dialog Moments). C

GPA: 2.0/4

Doctor Who #41: The Web of Fear

Doctor Who: The Web of Fear, 1968 (the fifth story of seven from season five). Robot yetis invade London.

Directed by Douglas Camfield. Written by Mervyn Haisman, & Henry Lincoln. Starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, & Deborah Watling.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: D
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: A lot of things are done surprisingly well in this story. Sadly, the plot is not one of them.  People just wander around in the sewers for six episodes. And not being able to see the first yeti story (this is a sequel, and the original is lost) leads to a lot of basic questions not being answered (such as, "What the hell is this villain?" or, "Why is that robot so fluffy and huggable?"). C

GPA: 2.0

Doctor Who #40: The Enemy of the World

Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World, 1967-1968 (the fourth story of seven from season five). A man who looks like the Doctor is trying to take over the world.

Directed by Barry Letts. Written by David Whitaker. Starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, & Deborah Watling.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: D
Music: D
Enjoyment: Having Troughton play two characters should have been great, but in six episodes, they only bothered to have any fun with it in two or three scenes. C

GPA: 1.6/4

Doctor Who #8: The Reign of Terror

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror, 1964 (the last story of eight from season one). The French Revolutionary government imprisons the Doctor's friends.

Directed by Henric Hirsch (5 episodes) & John Gorrie (1). Written by Dennis Spooner. Starring William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill & Carole Ann Ford.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 0/4 (Terrible). The two animated episodes are nearly unwatchable.
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). Extremely boring.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.0/4 (Bad)

Doctor Who #155: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, 1988-1989 (the last story of four from season twenty-five). A sinister circus is sinister.

Directed by Alan Wareing. Written by Stephen Wyatt. Starring Sylvester McCoy & Sophie Aldred.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 2/10 (Terrible, 0/4). It doesn't make sense, it's poorly executed, and it fails to be interesting or entertaining in any way.
Objective Rating (Average): 0.8/4 (Very bad)

Doctor Who #53: The Ambassadors of Death

Doctor Who: "The Ambassadors of Death," 1970 (the third story of four from season seven). Astronauts returning from Mars are kidnapped as part of an elaborate conspiracy.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Michael Ferguson. Written by David Whitaker, Malcolm Hulke & Trevor Ray. Starring Jon Pertwee, Caroline John & Nicholas Courtney.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent). The pacing of the individual episodes is (usually) excellent. As a whole, though, it's a couple episodes too long.
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent). There's a lot of instrumental pop music, reminiscent of The Prisoner, which is great and suits this era of Doctor Who perfectly.  There's also, at one point, the worst incidental music (possibly the worst music, period) I've ever heard.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). At its best, it's suspenseful and intelligent. At its worst, it's campy fun.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

Doctor Who #153: The Happiness Patrol

Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol, 1988 (the second story of four from season twenty-five). A dictator has outlawed unhappiness.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Chris Clough. Written by Graeme Curry. Starring Sylvester McCoy & Sophie Aldred.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 0/4 (Terrible)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). A nice idea, not all that badly written, ruined by crap production.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.7/4 (Eh)

Doctor Who #72: Death to the Daleks

Doctor Who: Death to the Daleks, 1974 (the third story of five from season eleven). An ancient city drains the power from every ship that lands on its planet.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Michael E. Briant. Written by Terry Nation. Starring Jon Pertwee & Elisabeth Sladen.

Concept: 3/4 (Good). Granted, it doesn't make any sense. How can Daleks move around at all when they don't have power? But a competent writer could have found a way around that.
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible)
Subjective Rating: 2/10 (Terrible, 0/4). Oh Terry Nation, you so awful. 100 minutes of show, and about 50 minutes of material. I mean, literally, you could film this exact script, with no edits, and come up with a 50-minute show that didn't feel rushed.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.2/4 (Bad)

Doctor Who #47: The Krotons

Doctor Who: "The Krotons," 1968-1969 (the fourth story of seven from season six). Unseen aliens/machines need strong minds and destroy what they can't use.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by David Maloney. Written by Robert Holmes. Starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines & Wendy Padbury.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent). Good writing for the regulars. The guests are all crap.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent). Some nice funny lines. Some terrible dramatic lines.
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Great sets. Terrible monsters.
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Sometimes it's very good, sometimes it's pretty bad - in just about every aspect of the show. There's more good than bad, but the bad is bad enough that I can't bring myself to give it any "good" scores. I enjoyed watching it well enough. Zoe's very mini miniskirt doesn't hurt.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.9/4 (Eh)

Doctor Who #151: Dragonfire

Doctor Who: "Dragonfire," 1987 (the final story of four from season twenty-four). An ice planet/grocery store has an evil mastermind and maybe a dragon.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Chris Clough. Written by Ian Briggs. Starring Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford & Sophie Aldred.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad). It has its moments, though.
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). Horrible, horrible writing. Despite a simple plot, nothing about it makes any sense. There are some attempts at humor, but they're pretty bad and I wasn't always sure if something was meant to be funny or if it was just funny asinine because it was such crap. McCoy is always clowning regardless of the intended tone of a scene, which makes it feel like he's just not taking the role seriously, rather than that the character is silly. Not that you can really blame him considering the scripts they were giving him.
Objective Rating (Average): 0.9/4 (Very bad)

Doctor Who #107: Nightmare of Eden

Doctor Who: "Nightmare of Eden," 1979 (the fourth story of six from season seventeen). A passenger spaceship carrying a drug smuggler materializes on top of another ship.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Alan Bromly & Graham Williams. Written by Bob Baker. Starring Tom Baker & Lalla Ward.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). Mediocre design, terrible effects.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). Occasional great dialog and some clever ideas keep it watchable. The script is a mess, but it's a silly mess that might have made for a fun serial. It's execution, though, is bad at best.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.8/4 (Eh)

Doctor Who #59: The Daemons

Doctor Who: "The Daemons," 1971 (the last story of five from season eight). A pagan cult summons the devil, who is a space alien.

Directed by Christopher Barry. Written by Robert Sloman & Barry Letts. Starring Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning & Roger Delgado.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 0/4 (Terrible)
Dialog: 0/4 (Terrible)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 0/4 (Terrible)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible)
Subjective Rating: 2/10 (Terrible, 0/4). It's hard to say (since I've been watching them over such a long stretch of time), but this may be the worst Doctor Who I've ever seen. Yes, I think it probably is.
Objective Rating (Average): 0.4/4 (Terrible)

Doctor Who #44: The Dominators

Doctor Who: "The Dominators," 1968 (the first story of seven from season six). Evil aliens show up on a planet of pacifists.

Directed by Morris Barry. Written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln. Starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Ronald Allen, Kenneth Ives & Arthur Cox.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Bad, but an amusing sort of bad.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.5/4 (Eh)

Doctor Who #7: The Sensorites

Doctor Who: "The Sensorites," 1964 (the seventh story of eight from season one). A human spaceship is trapped in orbit around a planet of telepaths.

Directed by Mervyn Pinfield (4 episodes) & Frank Cox (2). Written by Peter R. Newman. Starring William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill & Carole Ann Ford.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 0/4 (Terrible). Often the only emotion conveyed is triumph at having made it through a line successfully.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 2/10 (Terrible, 0/4). Usually when 1960s Doctor Who is bad, it's due to the time constraints they had to work in - no time to work out the kinks or take a second take when things didn't go right. (And they do have all those problems here, in greater abundance than usual.) In this case, though, there's nothing anyone could have done to save it, short of having the writer shot. It would have been better if they'd just had the actors make it up as they went along. Sometimes I think they did.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.0/4 (Bad)

Doctor Who #89: The Face of Evil

Doctor Who: "The Face of Evil," 1977 (the fourth story of six from season fourteen). Descendants of interplanetary explorers worship and obey a mysterious voice on the other end of a transceiver.

Directed by Pennant Roberts. Written by Chris Boucher. Starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson & David Garfield.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). Lots of the usual escaping-and-getting-recaptured-then-running-through-endless-corridors filler. If it was shorter by an episode or two, it would have been great.
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Very good for Doctor Who, though.
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Garfield actually manages to upstage Tom Baker.
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's an unusual story for the era, and it's fun to see them doing something slightly different.  Also, Leela is awesome.  I wish the current show would have the balls to give the Doctor a genuinely new companion instead of just the latest variation on Pretty But Spunky 21st Century Earth Girl.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

Doctor Who #71: Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Doctor Who: "Invasion of the Dinosaurs," 1974 (the second story of five from season eleven). A mad science conspiracy manipulates time. Directed by Paddy Russell. Written by Malcolm Hulke. Starring Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, Noel Johnson & John Bennett.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 0/4 (Terrible)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). Boring. Occasional bursts of camp and one or two unexpected plot turns aren't nearly enough to save it.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.0/4 (Bad)

Doctor Who #83: The Android Invasion

Doctor Who: "The Android Invasion," 1975 (the fourth story of six from season thirteen). Alien invaders use android doppelgangers. Directed by Barry Letts. Written by Terry Nation. Starring Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Milton Johns & Martin Friend.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4). There are lots of little good ideas here and there, but overall its sloppily and lazily written. It just wouldn't be a Terry Nation script without at least one twisted ankle.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.8/4 (Eh)

Doctor Who #149: Paradise Towers

Doctor Who: "Paradise Towers," 1987 (the second story of four from season twenty-four). Something is killing people in a dystopian apartment building. Directed by Nicholas Mallett. Written by Stephen Wyatt. Starring Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Richard Briers & Howard Cooke.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). At least it makes sense. It's full of plot holes, but it makes enough sense that you can identify the plot holes. That's pretty good for late 80's Doctor Who.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). Some nice ideas for characters, but with terrible execution.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 0/4 (Terrible)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). Silly, but a completely wrong type of silly for Doctor Who. It's like the writer had never seen Doctor Who, heard it was a children's show, and then... just didn't give any more fucks. Poor Sylvester McCoy - between this and "Time and the Rani," he really got a horrible start to his Doctor. If I'd been watching at the time, I might even have thought he was worse than Colin Baker.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.1/4 (Bad)

Doctor Who #148: "Time and the Rani"

Doctor Who: "Time and the Rani," 1987 (the first story of four from season twenty-four). An evil Time Lady needs the Doctor's brain in order to carry out an experiment. Directed by Andrew Morgan. Written by Pip & Jane Baker. Starring Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford & Kate O'Mara.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 0/4 (Terrible)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). The first episode is okay. The rest consists of a cycle of various protagonists alternately escaping and getting re-captured. And the mysterious master plan that you're supposed to be in suspense over turns out to be plot-holed gibberish.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.3/4 (Bad)